The Germans work hard, and are productive. They have had a huge financial burden to integrate East Germany into their economy. There is a good article of the German Model of industry on wikipedia HERE. I'm not saying it is all roses, but there appears to be some merit in the way they do business.

My post was incorrect in comparing there holidays to the rest of Europe, it should have been compared to the US. If I provided incorrect information I was wrong and stand corrected.

It still does not change the fact that there are many wasy of resolving disputes, and grounding the airline is the least likely to lead to workers improving productivity of their own volition.

I also think recent history proves that if the pilots had gone straight to industrial action in the form of ANY operations disruptions (as many argued they should), Qantas would have shut down the airline immediately - it would have provided exactly the excuse they were looking for to pull out, and use the nuclear option. They were always going to do it, goading the employees to cause the disruption first.